Exploring the motivation and classroom engagement of college learners of English for academic purposes: A participatory action research intervention

Learners of English for academic purposes (EAP) encounter various academic and social challenges in their learning pursuits. To explore collaborative ways of energizing their learning behaviour, an intervention was designed and implemented through the participation of 18 EAP learners and their teacher in a Canadian college classroom for one semester. Adopting a participatory action research framework, the group formed a community in which power was gradually shared and collaborative changes were made to lesson design and delivery. Moreover, the learners participated in the design and implementation of social activities in which they interacted with other members of the public and investigated their mini-research projects. Data were collected through recurrent experience sampling surveys ( n = 449), semi-structured interviews, and the researcher’s journal and field notes. Results indicated an overall increase in classroom engagement and motivation after implementing the intervention despite the fluctuations of the former and the occasional stagnation of the latter. Furthermore, a linear mixed-effects analysis of repeated measures data revealed significant differences between the learners’ engagement levels before and after implementing the intervention. Finally, the concepts of motivation and engagement and their timescales were complementary, revealing noteworthy information about the learners’ desire to participate in classroom activities, as well as their actual participation in activities.